Everyone sees art in different ways.

Adrian Newstead, director of the Coo-ee Gallery in Sydney hopes that the art works will develop with the young Aboriginal painters and last forever. Aboriginal artist, Barbara Weir, says that she is painting to record …

Painter Arthur Boyd uses his hands to paint. He says that the method is sensual and allows him to better depict his intent.

Australian painter Arthur Boyd painted his 'Half-Caste Bride’ series in the 1950s, drawing international attention to his work.

Art curator Barry Pearce explains how Boyd’s exposure to European painters like Goya gave him a …

The artists talk about the response to the paintings on the Santa Teresa church wall. We see an Aboriginal interpretation of biblical characters such as Jesus and Moses.

Percy Trezise is a pilot who searches for Aboriginal rock paintings in his spare time. He’s uncovered some magnificent paintings of the ancestral spirits known as Quinkan beings, who are of special significance to …

In the decade since That Eye, the Sky (1986) was published to rave reviews, there has been a theatrical version by Justin Monjo and Richard Roxburgh and now a film adaptation by Melbourne director John …

Andrea Stretton asks Tim Winton whether he could ever really be happy with an adaptation, given that his work is very much about the use of language and not just story-line and plot. He generously …

Japan invaded China in 1934. Forty million Chinese fled the invasionary forces. Cartoonist Huang Miaozi drew anti-Japanese slogans to protest the invasion.

Saint Joseph of Cupertino levitated regularly while praying, occasionally requiring the use of ropes to anchor him.

This clip begins with cartoonist Harry Julius walking into his office reading a newspaper. Some of his cartoons are visible around his desk. Julius puts the newspaper down and begins to draw. This is followed …

A large bear (representing the Russian forces) carrying a bayonet is accompanied by the caption: ‘I’m out to give Mr Turk a bad time’. In a boat landed nearby, the hand of the artist …

This clip begins with the animated title Cartoons of the Moment, then shows political cartoonist Harry Julius sitting at his desk reading a newspaper. He puts the newspaper down and begins to sketch. This cuts …

This clip begins with text outlining Colonel Cameron’s suggestion on returning from the Dardanelles that Australia should introduce compulsory national service. A white outline of Australia and New Zealand is turned sideways to form …

This clip begins with the Cartoons of the Moment title card featuring a kangaroo and lion. Cartoonist Harry Julius is shown sketching at his notepad against an ocean background. A headline from the Berlin ??Lokal …

This clip begins with the title card Cartoons of the Moment followed by a scene of cartoonist Harry Julius sketching at an easel. A group of children run up to him and watch as he …

This clip begins with a cartoon of Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II surrounded by skulls. A caption illustrates the Kaiser’s thoughts, saying that while he wished to fight in the trenches, the almighty ‘willed …

This clip begins with the hand of the artist (Harry Julius) drawing seven animals including a bear, bulldog, turkey and daschund, which surround a title card ‘the war zoo’. Three of the animals are introduced …

Australian landscape painter Clifton Pugh explains how he approaches painting the Australian bush from a subjective viewpoint.

Watercolourist Conrad Martens settled in NSW in 1835, remaining there until his death in 1878. He painted a valuable visual record of life in the young colony, and we see many examples of early Sydney.

Australian artist Brett Whiteley says that he was born with a 'powerful gift’. Whiteley points out that many 'gifted people shipwreck’. He talks of his addiction to drugs and says it is a way of …

A brush pushes dots against an all black canvas. Trevor Nickolls tells us about the influences that shape his work. Nickolls refers to the Western machinery and Indigenous cosmology known as the Dreaming.

A group of flowering plants – violet, white, orange, and purple – slowly blossom against a background of greenery. This is captured using time lapse photography methods.

Australia is a world leader in surf wear and surf culture. Robert Moore has been designing for Mambo for many years and is one of the best in the business, despite very little art school …

Dressed in a dinner suit, Frank Thring – film director and head of Efftee Film Studios – addresses the audience in a speech to camera which introduces the studio’s first all-Australian talking picture program. Thring outlines …

Still photographer Carol Jerrems made a short film in 1975 featuring 15-year-old schoolboys from Heidelberg Tech. Most of them had been expelled and, in Carol’s words, preferred ‘bashing, beer, sheilas, gang bangs, gang fights …

Joy Hester (1920-1960) was a passionate woman whose works, mainly in ink, are confronting. Her confident work is displayed by her first husband, painter Albert Tucker. Hester was a part of the group of Victorian …

Gauguin arrives in Tahiti to find the paradise he longs to paint has almost completely disappeared. But he soon finds models to paint including fourteen-year-old Tahitian girl Teha’amana who also becomes his lover. Stephen …

Kim (Gina Riley), aka 'Hornbag,’ visits Brett (Peter Rowsthorn) at work in order to buy a modem from him. Back home, she fights with Sharon (Magda Szubanski) when Sharon wants a turn on the computer …

When Judy Davis was chosen to play the lead in My Brilliant Career (1979), she was 23 and a recent graduate of NIDA. Under the gentle prompting of interviewer Andrea …

Robert Hughes describes the long hard slog of writing. He says that all his books, except for The Culture of Complaint (1993), would never have been written if he’d known what was ahead of …

Robert Hughes is dismissive of anyone who says you can see the great art works online or in books. He says that it is important to travel to the world’s art galleries to see …

This clip describes the constant disruptions to the boys’ preparation for an exhibition, and the discouragement of art as a vocation. Noel White’s daughter and excerpts from White’s diary describe the interference from …

Wangkatjungka elder Spider sits with the children and shows them how Kurtal became a serpent. Spider then leads a convoy to the jila (living waterhole) where Kurtal slumbers, taking his family to meet their ancestor …

Scotty Martin shows us rock paintings of Wandjina, the ancestor who – in Scotty’s culture – is the being who created the world, giving Aborigines culture and law. Or, as Scotty puts it, 'the boss’.

An art auction. A woman is purchasing two pieces of art – a Mimi statue and a painting of a barramundi fish.

Thornton not only pokes fun at the ignorance of conservative white purchasers of Indigenous art, but also exploits the paradigm of 'authentic Aboriginality’. The same ignorance Catherine (Sophie Lee) displays in relation to the culture …

With its revolutionary approach to depicting the landscape and light, Tom Roberts’s Bailed Up is a painting that helped define Australia’s national identity.

A pair of frail, gnarled feet. The Aboriginal daughter (Marcia Langton) on her hands and knees, gently washes her white mother’s arthritic feet. The Aboriginal woman begins to remember another time, when as a …

Grahame Walsh, an expert in stencil art, explores Carnarvon Gorge to find evidence of occupation by Aboriginal people 20,000 years ago.

Aboriginal paintings feature maps of a specific area, mythology, personal history and storytelling.

Aboriginal artists Brandy Tjungurrayi and Charlie Wallabi paint their country.

In 1939, for the first time, a French and British contemporary art exhibition was brought to Melbourne. It is the first large collection of cubist, post-expressionist and surrealist art exhibited there. It wowed the artists …

The Contemporary Art Society of Australia, of which Yosl Bergner and fellow artists are members, mounted an anti-fascist exhibition in Melbourne and Adelaide in late 1942. Bergner talks about his paintings of Aboriginal people.

Bill Peach takes us for a meander through the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. Along the way, we learn that the white squatters who settled the area in 1851 welcomed the artist Hans Heysen to …

Artist Jeffrey Smart takes the audience on a whimsical visit to an industrial landscape where he set a painting featuring bicycle riders. Smart asks the film’s director where he would put the figure of …

The camera films the wedding party compose themselves for still photographs at the reception. Some of the guests are also shown. The clip ends with the bride and groom standing in front of a staircase …

Australian painter Tim Storrier creates a nocturnal landscape painting from photographs and his imagination.

We see samples of Tony Tuckson’s later work in a gallery, while in voice-over friends and colleagues discuss his work, and the changes he went through in later life.